I've been planning a HTPC upgrade, and I figure to go with something in socket 754 for price reasons...
I am looking for a good motherboard (micro atx) that can do undervolting. I figure even a sempron 64 2600+ will be overkill most of the time, so I need something I can make really quiet. Unfortunately, the undervoltable motherboard list hasn't been updated in a really long time.
also, I am considering some form of onboard graphics, either xpress 200 or nvidia 6100/6150. I figure that should help keep airflow really simple, and not require any graphics card... (upgrade to come later if/when needed).
Any suggestions ?
Socket 754 Motherboard for HTPC
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marcmercer
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2005 2:30 am
What are you upgrading from?
The Sempron 64 2600+ isn't that powerful of a CPU. Based on a couple of benchmarks that I've seen it is similar in speed to a either an Athlon XP 2800+ or Athlon XP 3200+.
If you are doing multimedia encoding like DVD to DivX conversion, or converting your CDs to MP3 file, then this CPU is about the speed of the XP 2800+.
In terms of Direct X 8 or 9 games it performs similar to the XP 3200+, but it seems you don't intend to play games.
In my opinion, an upgrade to the S64 2600+ is only worth it if your current system is slower than an Athlon XP 2500+ for multimedia purposes. The slower your current PC is the more bang for the buck you will get.
If you have a XP 2500+ or better, then I don't think the marginal increase in performance is worth the money and you are better off waiting a little longer to save up some money. If you can save a measely $20 a month for the next 3 months, you'll have another $60 to spend on a better CPU. By then there may be another slight price drop as well since the new socket AM2 Athlons are coming out.
The Sempron 64 2600+ isn't that powerful of a CPU. Based on a couple of benchmarks that I've seen it is similar in speed to a either an Athlon XP 2800+ or Athlon XP 3200+.
If you are doing multimedia encoding like DVD to DivX conversion, or converting your CDs to MP3 file, then this CPU is about the speed of the XP 2800+.
In terms of Direct X 8 or 9 games it performs similar to the XP 3200+, but it seems you don't intend to play games.
In my opinion, an upgrade to the S64 2600+ is only worth it if your current system is slower than an Athlon XP 2500+ for multimedia purposes. The slower your current PC is the more bang for the buck you will get.
If you have a XP 2500+ or better, then I don't think the marginal increase in performance is worth the money and you are better off waiting a little longer to save up some money. If you can save a measely $20 a month for the next 3 months, you'll have another $60 to spend on a better CPU. By then there may be another slight price drop as well since the new socket AM2 Athlons are coming out.
Last edited by stupid on Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Very sound advice for someone with the nick stupid
if you want to oc the sempron the gigabyte (or is it biostar) T-Force boards have gotten some good reviews. Nforce 6150/410 based uATX. Not sure if it undervolts (couldnt glean that info from the review i read).
Expect a few more ATI Xpress and nforce uATX boards in the market pretty soon. I remember seeing some stuff in the CES wrapup articles on various sites.
if you want to oc the sempron the gigabyte (or is it biostar) T-Force boards have gotten some good reviews. Nforce 6150/410 based uATX. Not sure if it undervolts (couldnt glean that info from the review i read).
Expect a few more ATI Xpress and nforce uATX boards in the market pretty soon. I remember seeing some stuff in the CES wrapup articles on various sites.
Thanks for the advice.
The system I am upgrading from is a P4 1.5Ghz, (ECS motherboard with SDR/DDR options ) and there are several reasons for the upgrade.
- lack of USB 2.0 high speed
- need micro-atx motherboard for smaller case (not entirely sure which case yet)
- want something a little bit faster
- want something that can be made a little bit quieter
and while upgrading, I figured I should at least make sure I get something with PCI-E...
Transcoding will probably be done on a different machine (A64 3000+).
The machine might be used for games, but then I will have to upgrade the graphics anyway. I originally looked at a 6150/s939 board, but I don't think I want to put that much money in it right now... unless I can find a S939 CPU for way less than $160.
The system I am upgrading from is a P4 1.5Ghz, (ECS motherboard with SDR/DDR options ) and there are several reasons for the upgrade.
- lack of USB 2.0 high speed
- need micro-atx motherboard for smaller case (not entirely sure which case yet)
- want something a little bit faster
- want something that can be made a little bit quieter
and while upgrading, I figured I should at least make sure I get something with PCI-E...
Transcoding will probably be done on a different machine (A64 3000+).
The machine might be used for games, but then I will have to upgrade the graphics anyway. I originally looked at a 6150/s939 board, but I don't think I want to put that much money in it right now... unless I can find a S939 CPU for way less than $160.
You can check out ZipZoomFly for $139 shipped. But it is currently out of stock, so check every other day. Or click one the bank in stock link.goink wrote:I originally looked at a 6150/s939 board, but I don't think I want to put that much money in it right now... unless I can find a S939 CPU for way less than $160.
I'll look into that. I'm not sure it will come back in stock since it has been discontinued as far as I know...stupid wrote: You can check out ZipZoomFly for $139 shipped. But it is currently out of stock, so check every other day. Or click one the bank in stock link.
Using an opteron 144 just seems like completely the wrong thing to do for this project
My BIOSTAR TForce 6100 socket 754 board has been great. Lots of voltage options (all the way down to 0.8V I think, though the lowest setting I got to work was 0.85V I believe.) Runs my old 90nm Sempron 2800+ just fine at 2.4GHz--a mild overclock. Amazing for an IGP board. I had tried several nForce2 IGP boards over the years and never could get them to run reliably at the standard PC3200 memory speed. I also tried this board with an old A64 2800+ which also worked well. Cool'n'Quiet support with the latter is nice, but the Sempron was just as fast, and a little cooler when stressed. My Sempron doesn't support Cool'n'Quiet, but the newer ones do. I might upgrade to a Sempron 64 just to get Cool'n'Quiet again.goink wrote:Thanks for the advice.
The system I am upgrading from is a P4 1.5Ghz, (ECS motherboard with SDR/DDR options ) and there are several reasons for the upgrade.
Transcoding will probably be done on a different machine (A64 3000+).
The machine might be used for games, but then I will have to upgrade the graphics anyway. I originally looked at a 6150/s939 board, but I don't think I want to put that much money in it right now... unless I can find a S939 CPU for way less than $160.
I also tried the ASUS Geforce 6150 socket 939 board with a new A64 3200+ clocked at 2.4GHz (the maximum speed the ASUS board allows). The latter was a little faster in 3D, but not worth the extra money for me. I don't need S-video out, firewire, spdif or DVI-D that the ASUS board has. The BIOSTAR board is also much more reliable than the ASUS board. The ASUS board would often refuse to reboot--I believe due to flaky power circuits or a flaky BIOS.
Other nice features of the TForce board: passive heatsinks on IGP and 410 chips, 4 fan headers, lots of options for temperature control of fan speed in the BIOS.
I would like an extra audio-in jack that the Tforce doesn't have as I have a 5.1 analog speakers and would like to keep my VCR audio cable connected all the time.
Also, for some reason it is hard to find the TForce 6100 Socket 754 board. I bought mine on eBay with the Athlon 64 2800+ included. I have heard the non-TForce BIOSTAR 6100 boards are the same basic design and are cheap and easy to get.
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Weldingheart
- Posts: 192
- Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2005 6:04 am
Check out the price diff between the 2600.2800 and 3000. Bear in mind that the 3000 has Cool and Quiet,which for my $ is worth an extra $15-$20 by itself.
I tend to like ECS for M ATX and 754 budget boards. Some makers seem to focus on their high end SLI board and when you check reviews on the less glamourous 754 minis you see a lot of people having problems,bugs,boards that arrive dead or fail in a month. ECS seems to have invested in the quality control even for the $50 mini boards. The one I liked was AGP,Via chipset,but they do a PCIe also. Most will give you USB 2.0,SATA 150.
If you were into ultra competitive games,sure,this is stuff that could kick butt in 2004, Now even a Semp 3000 is a huge step from your old rig. It can run at 90F stock cooled-meaning you put a Ninja or other jumbo passive on it,and let one slow case fan handle the airflow quietly.
I tend to like ECS for M ATX and 754 budget boards. Some makers seem to focus on their high end SLI board and when you check reviews on the less glamourous 754 minis you see a lot of people having problems,bugs,boards that arrive dead or fail in a month. ECS seems to have invested in the quality control even for the $50 mini boards. The one I liked was AGP,Via chipset,but they do a PCIe also. Most will give you USB 2.0,SATA 150.
If you were into ultra competitive games,sure,this is stuff that could kick butt in 2004, Now even a Semp 3000 is a huge step from your old rig. It can run at 90F stock cooled-meaning you put a Ninja or other jumbo passive on it,and let one slow case fan handle the airflow quietly.
Antec Minuet II case with included 220W Antec power supply (24+4pin), but I am moving everything to a IN WIN Z720T next week which will give me the space to use a X800GTO and a SCNJ-1000. I haven't noticed anything strange with temperature readings. This TForce board is NOT like the typical BIOSTAR board (other than being inexpensive.)Weldingheart wrote:Nice QuietOC, I was also in the crossroad between Biostar and Asus for the 754 mATX I'd like to build.
However I got random reading on temps for my previous K7 biostar mATX board(M7VIZ),is it any known issue on your board?
Btw what's PSU&case do you use for your system
BTW: Newegg has the board in stock and even on sale right now. Almost made me get another to upgrade my parent's system.